Join me as I travel on my journey: becoming healthy; communing with God; and fulfilling my obligation as husband, friend, and disciple of Christ. It's a life-long process guided by faith and only possible because of God's grace.

That means, all I have left is:-113 Calories-90 Sit-Ups-200 Calf RaisesJump Rope for 55 Minutes

As Steve mentioned in a comment on my last post, the jumping rope thing kinda kicked my butt. My goal for next week will change dramatically.

I also was able to walk 4 times this week. 2 miles at a time. And my rate is about 17-18 minutes a mile--not too bad. I'm pretty proud about my sit-ups and calf raises. On Monday, the sit-ups kinda hurt my back, but now it feels much better--even though I'm doing much more sit ups each day. Just goes to show the benefit of actually using your dang muscles.

I'll be needing your prayers for this weekend, though, since it's my family reunion. There's always so much food out there and I'm there all day on both days, so it'll be tough. I'll be taking some grilled curry veggies that I can eat, and hopefully I'll be able to find some good things to eat.

Calories burned on the elliptical: 679Sit-Ups: 60Calf Raises: 1251 Walk around the park

So far, I've done:2026 Calories160 Sit-Ups325 Calf Raises2 Walks around the park1 minute of jumping rope (did this yesterday, but it turns out that a jump rope that is great for my 5' tall wife doesn't really work for my 6'2" body! Who woulda thought?) - I'll get a new rope for myself for today.

That means, all I have left is:444 Calories10 Sit-Ups25 Calf RaisesJump Rope for 59 Minutes(planning on 20 minutes today)

I've always been like this. In college, I would track my points total throughout the quarter to determine how well I needed to do on my final to get the grade I wanted. So, I would work my butt off to get 100% on all my homework/papers and mid-terms, so that I could "take it easy" on the final, only get 75%, and still end up with a 3.5 or so.

Same here.

So far, I've done:1347 Calories100 Sit-Ups200 Calf Raises

That means, all I have left is:1123 Calories70 Sit-Ups150 Calf RaisesJump Rope for 60 Minutes1 walk to the park and around the track

Of course, I could always just power through and see how much over I can do. If you can surpass your goal instead of hitting it, why not?

Weight left to lose: 80.2Weeks left at average loss: 26.65Estimated total weeks: 42.5 (about 9.8 months)

This week's goal is going to look a little different. After being influenced by the advice of South Beach Steve, I'm looking to set exercise and activity goals. This helps to focus on the healthy lifestyle--if I'm focusing on that, the weight loss should follow. So, here are my goals:

Burn 2,500 Calories on the elliptical

Walk to the park and two laps around the track (a total of 2 miles) three days

Do 350 calf raises

Do 170 sit ups

Jump rope for 60 minutes

Please keep praying for my journey. And may God bless you all on your journeys.

So, I've now been on this journey for 15 weeks. It's been tough, but not as tough as I thought it would be, nor as tough as it should be! For a little bit of comparison, I wanted to show my first workout (04.06.09) and today's (07.24.09):

April 6, 2009:

July 24, 2009:

It's interesting to me that when I started, I was on level 5. Now I'm on level 17. When I started, it took me 45 minutes to burn 713.2 Calories. Now it takes me 25 minutes to burn 503.9 Calories. I used to burn an average of 15.85 Calories a minute. Now I burn an average of 20.15. That's an increase of 4.3 Calories a minute. If I ran on the elliptical for 45 minutes now, I would burn 906.75--a difference of almost 200 extra Calories!

Okay, now here are some kinda gross pictures, but ones that I love for some reason. They're the results of my workout sessions:

The Elliptical I run on:

(Please note the sweat that has pooled on the floor--sweat the ran down my arm, down the handles, down the bars, and onto the floor. Gross. But so cool!)

The shirt I wear:

(This shirt is actually light gray. You can tell if you look on the sides. Again, gross--but I'm kinda proud of it.)

Brown the turkey in the olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Remove the turkey from the pan and place in large mixing bowl. Add chard & turnip stems into the same pan with a splash of water. Cook until tender. Remove from pan and add to turkey. Submerge chopped leaves into pot of boiling water and cook until wilted. Drain leaves and wring out any liquid. Add to mixing bowl. Stir all ingredients together with balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, and feta cheese.

Place 1/2 mixture into center of each sheet of puff pastry. Fold puff pastry around the filling to make a loaf, place on baking sheet. Brush egg wash over the top of each loaf.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until browned and heated through.

I've now been doing this whole journey to sanctification thing for just over 3 months now, and I'm really starting to see how my decisions before were HORRIBLE! Like many of those out there, Chinese buffets used to be a downfall--Actually, ALL buffets used to cause me trouble! :) I would typically have 2 or 3 or 4 plates of food and a dessert. That's probably more food than I need in a couple days, much less one meal. I used to eat two frozen burritos as a snack! That's 600 calories of sin--before I topped it off with shredded cheese, sweet chili sauce, and sour cream. I feel gross just thinking about it now.

Last week, though, I had the most concrete revelation of the changes I've made. My friends and I love to go to Red Robin. Yum! But not always the best for you. Here's a picture of the nutritional info of what I used to order most times: A1 Peppercorn Burger with fries (and a refill) + sauces for the fries. Oh, and no soda; just water (like that does a lot of good!!):

Wow. That's more than a day's worth of Calories--and that would just be my dinner!! Sick, huh?

But with some more knowledge and a great interactive nutrition-burger building application, I now have a NEW favorite: Jamaican Jerk Chicken Burger with melon and an Ice Water. But with a couple of changes: I only get one piece of cheese (why does there need to be two??), I don't get the jerk seasoning (so much sodium), and melon on the side (instead of fries (not as good, but still so tasty!).

So, what's the difference?

Calories - 2140 less (25% of the old favorite)

Total Fat - 156g less (17% of the old favorite)

Sodium - 6130mg less (16% of the old favorite)

Carbs- 161g less (30% of the old favorite)

Dietary Fiber- 7g less (36% of the old favorite)

Protein- 26g less (62% of the old favorite)

Weight- 63g more (108% of the old favorite)

So, WAY WAY WAY better on the Calories, Fat, Sodium, and Carbs. Worse on the Dietary Fiber and the Protein (but I can get that other places). And More weight (which will help to make me feel fuller on less food).

The shocking thing for me is the change in the sodium. That's about a tablespoon's worth of salt.

Folks, grab a tablespoon; fill it up with salt; eat it. No, please don't! But just think, that's how much extra Sodium I was consuming. Now 1169mg is still a ton--almost 1/2 of the recommended daily allowance, but way better than before. And the fat. Wow, the fat. That's the equivalent of 17 KFC Extra Crispy Drumsticks! And the Calories would add an extra 7 pounds to my weight over the course of a year (if I only went once a month).

So glad my eyes have been opened!

So, folks, that's how big of a difference making informed decisions can make!

Weight left to lose: 89.0Weeks left at average loss: 32Estimated total weeks: 46 (about 10.5 months!!!)

This week's goal is to lose at least 3 pounds--to keep me above my average. I think I can do it--I'll be doing more work in the yard, 4 hours at the farm, and won't be eating so poorly! I didn't eat so well, since my job has been stressful, and I keep forgetting to make my supplies for breakfast at work. We'll see if I can keep up this rate! Whoohoo!

So, I've decided to start posting the recipes that Anna and I create while we learn to eat all of the amazing vegetables we're getting from our work share. Here's the first recipe (not the first one we've created, but the first one that we've actually written down!):